CBC News
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Canada — The Winnipeg family of a newborn who was rescued from a toilet in a North End home expressed gratitude Monday for the quick thinking of two city police officers.
The officers, from the force’s street-crime unit, were conducting an investigation at a Flora Avenue home at about 1:30 p.m. CT Sunday when they heard a commotion in the home, with people shouting and focused on the bathroom, police said.
The officers discovered a woman had just delivered a baby boy into the toilet bowl.
“They grabbed baby and one police officer gave CPR to that baby and it started breathing and saved that baby’s life,” said Joseph Murdoch, the infant’s grandfather.
Paramedics arrived and rushed the boy to hospital in critical condition, police said.
The as-yet unnamed infant has been upgraded to stable condition, police said. His 32-year-old mother was also in hospital and doing well.
“Nobody even knew she was pregnant,” said Lillian Richard, the baby’s grandmother. “She didn’t even know, ‘cause she’s a hefty girl. She only thought she was getting the cramps, like gas and that. She’d feel little flutters.”
Both Richard and Murdoch said everyone in the family is grateful for what the officers did.
The officers are not being identified because they often work undercover. police said.
Police didn’t provide any information about the nature of the investigation the officers were conducting at the home.
Copyright 2009 CBC